Apr 27, 2018

Back in 2014, the Star Tribune published Separate And Unequal, a highly critical look at the condition at federal Bureau of Indian Education schools in Minnesota. The series helped move the Minnesota legislature, under the leadership of former DFL state representative Paul Thissen, to address the funding issues.

Those are the words that Ricky White, superintendent of the White Earth Nation’s Circle of Life Academy, says Minnesota legislators need to take to heart as they weigh a retreat from a 2015 commitment to help students in the state’s four Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools.

Two years ago, after a Star Tribune editorial series spotlighted the shameful state of BIE school buildings in Minnesota and elsewhere, Gov. Mark Dayton and legislators forged agreement on a historic aid package for American Indian students. Among its components: a significant boost in funding for math coaching, mentoring and other support for Native students in both public and tribal schools. Funding also helped start a new early childhood program in tribal communities.

But one part of package — known as the tribal school equalization program — also specifically targeted badly needed aid to the long-struggling BIE schools. In addition to Circle of Life Academy, BIE schools near Onamia, Bena and Cloquet are part of a federal K-12 system underfunded for decades by Congress. Around 850 students attend BIE schools here.

Minnesota has long supplemented federal funding to these schools to help them keep pace with the state’s better-funded education system. In 2015, legislators lifted an 26-year-old cap on that aid of $1,500 per student. The move raised the cap to $3,260 per pupil. That helped schools like White’s hire additional staff and devise culturally-grounded measures to address academic gaps, absenteeism and behavioral issues.

It was clear during the 2015 legislative hearings that the aid package, including BIE funding, was intended to be an ongoing commitment. That intention is reflected in the governor’s proposed budget, which includes a $3.9 million appropriation over the next biennium to maintain the enhanced equalization aid. Dayton is to be commended for honoring this commitment to BIE students.

Regrettably, GOP legislators are proposing to return to the badly-outdated $1,500 cap, though they merit credit for supporting other American Indian initiatives. The House GOP’s Education Finance Commitee chair, Rep. Jenifer Loon, said the previous BIE boost was a “one-time bump” — so to go back to $1,500 wouldn’t be a “cut.” Loon also said it wasn’t manageable to match Dayton’s funding level with her budget target. . . .

Erickson took a swipe at sovereignty in reiterating the need for her most-likely unconstitutional amendment to Kunesh-Podein's amendments:

If they're going to argue that they're sovereign, then they don't have to take this money that we're giving to them.

This notion drew a swift response from Kunesh-Podein:

Members: our Native American students, our Native American families, our Native American communities are Minnesota citizens. We are not "giving" them money. We are equalizing their education, we are equalizing their opportunity, we are equalizing their future.

. . . Those of you that even presume to make an effort to say that we are not responsible for these students: shame on you. And shame on us for all of these years that we did this to our Native American communities, not just in here Minnesota, but across this nation and across this continent.

How can we even say that we would not fund schools in an equal way for any of our students?

I am a teacher in the Twin Cities. What is we just decided that--you know what, those kids in Robbinsdale, they don't need all that, let's just not fund them, all that money, let's go put that somewhere else.

If you read the reports and if you listen to the excitement in those superintendents and those students and you see the progress that these students have made because we have just equalized that money. it's not like we're giving them any more [than other students], it's not a handout. It is their right as Minnesota students. It is their right as human beings.

And I take great offense when someone minimizes the investment we make in any human being in this state, in this nation and this world. And if you support this amendment, are you supporting perhaps an illegal action? ...I know that the communities, the tribes have not been communicated [with] about this amendment--and once again, they are left out of the conversation. We're making huge decisions about the investment of these communities here in this room and they have not been brought into the conversation once again.

I am just shook to my core. And if you vote for this amendment, you are telling Minnesota and you are telling those Native American children that they don't count as much as every other kid in this state. And I absolutely insist that you vote no for this amendment.

Here's the YouTube footage of her floor speech (the video will automatically scroll to the starting point of her remarks:

The amendment to the amendment passed along partisan lines.

The New Brighton lawmaker's DFL colleagues and others tweeted their support for her championing native students:

@mkuneshpodein arguing on behalf of our American Indian kids in our BIE schools. Love you! She says "shame on us" for not funding our kids at BIE schools just like any other MN kid. They should probably be funded more like MPLS than the avg MN pupil too. All means all. #equity

Will the Republican majority's anti-sovereignty votes and eagerness to forbid any water quality standards for wild rice motivate tribal voters to boot them out of office in the fall--or to create their own water quality standards on tribal lands? Or both?

Kunesh-Podein, a member of the DFL Native American Caucus in the Minnesota House of Representatives, is also the author of HF 3375, a bill with bipartisan support which would establish a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women task force

Photo: Mary Kunesh-Podein, teacher, lawmaker and warrior.

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